Everybody loves a vampire
by eleblack90
Summary: Sam and Dean's opinion and attitude towards vampires is pretty clear, but will they change their mind as the most common gig leads them to Mystic Falls, Virginia?
1. Blood Brothers

**Chapter title:** Blood brothers  
**Characters:** Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester  
**Timeline:** Right after Supernatural 6x07 "Family Matters" and The Vampire Diaries 1x11 "By the light of the moon"  
**Words:** 612  
**Notes:** Chapter titles are taken from the one or the other tv shows. The fanfiction title is a crossover itself. This chapter's comes from TVD 1x20.

"_Play, play the game tonight _

_Can you tell me if it's wrong or right _

_It is worth the time, is it worth the pr- "_

"Hey!"

"What, Dean? It's 4 in the morning, will you let me get some sleep?" Sam moaned as he hid his face under his coat and leaned onto the car window in another desperate attempt to fall asleep.

"This ain't no fucking motel, Sammy! Plus how the hell am I supposed to stay awake and drive without any music on?" Dean protested and turned the volume knob back to loud.

"…_the curtains open _

_To the roaring of the crowd _

_You will feel it all around you…"_

From his dark little corner, Sam sighed heavily.

"Hey, don't you get snotty on me," his elder brother said, turning away his look from the empty road to check on him. "Should I remember you that it is you that so much insisted on getting our asses over here?"

"Look, Dean, how many times do I have to tell you," Sam snapped back into a straighter position, getting rid of the coat and passing his hand through his hair. "This is such an easy job. It's a one or two days thing, I promise. It's only about some freakin' animal attacks that have been happening around here for a while."

"Freakin' animals," Dean murmured, and you could tell he was still not 100% okay with it.

"We're gonna find what's going on and fix it and then we can go back to whatever exciting thing we were doing." Sam gave his brother an ironic look. 'Cause, really, Dean was always so edgy lately and his whole life revolved around finding the alpha vampire.

Silence fell inside the Impala as they drove past a sign that read 'Mystic Falls: 150 miles'.

Sam could have actually fallen asleep in the two hours that took them to reach their destination, only he was not in the mood anymore. Thoughts about the way his relationship with Dean seemed to have changed forever were crowding his mind and there was no way he would succeed in fighting them. Alright, the two of them had never been so good at relating to each other, but Sam knew that Dean trusted him and that he himself could count on his brother no matter what.

Now it was like a wall had been erected between them. They weren't able to communicate through one simple look anymore: it took words to trust, to be sure of each other's faithfulness – and sometimes even words were not enough.

Dean just didn't look at him the way he used to. There had been a time when Dean reckoned his brother to be innocent, no matter what kind of weird mixture of blood ran through his veins, no matter if their own father had even considered the idea of having to kill him one day. But then, let's face it, the younger Winchester had screwed so much up that Dean wasn't even sure he was actually his brother anymore.

Sam _knew _that, under the mask that Dean had been using for days pretending it was his own face, his brother was hiding disappointment, disillusion and, who knows, maybe anxiety too for what was going to become of them. So how could anyone blame him for diving back into their old jobs as soon as he could? Working side by side with Dean gave him hope, made it easier for him to think that maybe, just maybe, someday things with Dean would go back to the way they used to be.


	2. Matt said

**Chapter title:** Matt said  
**Characters:** Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Matt Donovan  
**Words:** 1733  
**Notes:** Title is from SPN 2x05 "Simon Said"

"So what about this Mystic Falls place?" Dean asked, expecting from Sam a complete summary on how things had been in the past few months in that small town they were driving slowly through.

"Well, pretty much everything has happened here," Sam started, flipping through the bunch of sheets he held in his hands. "A few animal attacks in the woods, people mysteriously disappeared, a fire of unknown origin in the central square of the town which actually destroyed a whole building and apparently left no victims but the town's mayor himself…"

"Well, sounds pretty ordinary to me." Dean commented, still more interested in the short skinny outfits of the girl he saw walking down the sidewalk than in the reason why they had actually drove up to that place.

"Yes, it does, unless you checked out this place's history. Very interesting, if you ask me."

"Woah woah, wait, if I'm gonna need to attend one of Professor Winchester's history classes, I'm gonna need my tummy to be full." Dean exclaimed with sarcasm, but he wasn't joking on the eating part: he suddenly turned left and entered this Mystic Grill joint's parking lot. His brother rolled his eyes, but a little smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

The two guys got off the car and headed for the entrance, Dean caressing nonchalantly his car with a finger and smirking at some blondie a few meters away.

The Grill was nice, warm and crowded with young people; probably a popular after-school local - if not the only one, considering the small dimensions of the town.

Sam and Dean sat down in the most discreet corner of the place, Dean grabbing the menu from the table as soon as his ass touched the seat. Sam cleared his throat and took a look around. His eyes crossed those of the young blond waiter as he gestured to assure that he would come to them in a moment.

"Geez, look at these cheeseburgers!" Dean burst out, sounding like a 10-year-old in front of a giant merry-go-round.

Two days, my ass, Sam thought and sighed. It would have taken two weeks just for Dean to try out the whole menu of the place.

When the waiter approached them Dean had only narrowed his possible choices from 4 to 3. Sam excused his brother with a desperate look and the guy smiled in return.

"You guys are new in town? It's normal for newbies to be so unsettled. The 5-star double cheeseburger's the best, if you ask me." He smirked as he took a notepad and a pen out of his back pocket.

"That's what I was gonna head for, actually," Dean raised his head from the paper and smiled. "And a beer."

Sam half smiled and added: "A beer for me too, thanks."

"Got it. Thank you."

Their beers arrived right away and Dean drank some of his with a grateful look on his face.

"Well, you may call the roll now, Sir," he told Sammy, but finally looked seriously focused.

"Alright, uhm...The spicy thing about this town dates back up to 1864 …" Sam played around with his bottle for a couple of seconds, again checking around that no one was eavesdropping on them "When the townspeople revolted against the vampires that used to inhabit the place. They captured them and burned them to death somewhere in the old town. It's a unique case of a population being aware of the danger they were running into and arising to protect themselves… "

"Sam."

"What?"

"Why didn't you tell me that this was all about vampires in the first place?" Dean asked serious.

Sam shrugged his shoulders and acted all innocent: "Well, you didn't ask… and then I thought it was pretty obvious…I mean…animal attacks…"

Dean's eyes narrowed as he put down the bottle of beer and got closer to Sam.

"Right. We've been deep down into this vampire shit for ages and you just _forget _to tell me that you've got a new track- "

"Cause I don't, Dean! I don't even know if this has anything to do with us. It was just a case, I read about this and thought we might as well just go for it."

"Oh, sorry, then, I thought you didn't wanna talk about it because you still felt guilty about what happened…"

"Guilty? Dean," Sam shook his head and glanced at the ceiling "How many times do I have to tell you- I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry, I…"

"I know." Dean brought back his attention to his beverage, cutting Sam off in a way that always set him on edge – and that pushed him not to let it go this time.

"No, you know what? You don't. I can tell, Dean," Sam burst out "I can tell that you don't believe me and that you care so much about this vampire crap only because you hope you'll find out that the vampire alpha's gonna be able to explain to you what happened to your little brother."

"Sam," Dean hissed and grabbed his brother's arm "You just told me that this town was home to vampires in the past and if we get it right they've been back for a while now. Talking about this stuff in a public place isn't going to be of any help."

"Here you are," an insecure voice said above them. The waiter had just brought Dean's cheeseburger and was now staring at them, one eyebrow raised in uncertainty. "You OK?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Dean let go of his brother instantly and put a big smile upon his own face. "Thanks, pal. Uhm, look, we'd like to ask you a few questions, actually. Can you sit down for a moment?"

The guy looked confused for a second before nodding and placing the pile of plates he was carrying on a table nearby. "Yeah, sure…I'm Matt, anyway."

"Thanks, Matt. We're Detectives Angus and Fudge, FBI." Sam said as the two of them displayed their usual fake IDs.

Matt was surprised and didn't comment with anything but an "Oh."

"We've heard that some people were attacked around here." Dean started.

"And someone disappeared. The… Lockwood family, if I recall," Sam went on "Recently announced the disappearing of Mr. Mason Lockwood…"

"Yeah, well, I know Mason's nephew, he's a fr- …" Matt explained, and seemed only a bit confused as he paused "A guy from here I know very well, we grew up together."

Dean and Sam kept staring at him even though that seemed pretty much all he had to say on the topic; it looked like the guy's attention had been caught by some thought he had made and that he had even forgotten they were there. But Dean, who hadn't drove all the way to Mystic Falls just be a random guy's shrink, had more questions to ask.

"Since when is he missing, exactly?"

"Uhm, well, it's hard to say… He left right after the Masquerade ball that his own family had organised a few weeks ago…We all thought he'd left, you know. The family said he's always been a free spirit, they're used to him leaving town without any notice."

"Why do you think he's missing, then?" Sam asked doubtful.

"I don't know very well. I've just heard that some girl showed up at the Lockwoods' door looking for him and saying that he never made it back to Florida, which is where he actually lived before coming back here to spend some time with his family."

Dean nodded, but didn't show any kind of opinion on the subject.

"What about the animal attacks? When did they start and when did the last one take place?" his brother said.

"Well, it all started at the beginning of this new school year, that I'm sure of," Matt answered. A dark look shadowed his face and his voice seemed to tear for a moment "My sister was attacked by one of them at a school party last September. I think that was definitely the first one."

"Is there any chance we can talk to her?" Dean asked, but Matt's reaction was instant. He got stiff and shook his head, pointing out that "My sister's dead."

The brothers glanced at each other and turned back to Matt.

"Sorry for your loss." Dean said politely and waited for a couple of seconds before asking very gently: "What was her name?"

"Vicki. Vicki Donovan."

"Did she die from it?" Sam asked right after, earning a severe look from his brother.

"No, uhm, that was later." Matt murmured and then cleared his throat, standing up. "Anyway, as for the last attack, I reckon it was some time ago at another school party that took place near the woods, but I can't give any more details, sorry. I should really get back to work now."

"Of course, man, thank you for your time," Dean gave him an understanding smile that the guy didn't register as he hurried back behind the counter.

"You satisfied with that, Inspector Gadget? 'Cause, really, you're as tactful as a cyborg." Dean remarked sharply. Sam turned to him with a 'I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about' look before taking a sip of his beer.

"Wasn't it you that wanted to get done with this as fast as possible? I just got straight to the point."

No you didn't, Dean thought while letting go of the burger he'd try to eat, you just showed one more time the big soulless bastard you've become.

"Let's go. All this crap took my hunger away." He said out loud, suddenly standing up. Sam looked both surprised and peeved as he unwillingly stood up and followed him.

A few meters away, Matt and Alaric were staring at them, the History teacher stretching away from the counter with a drink in his hand.

"Is it them?" he asked Matt after the two figures had disappeared outside.

"Yeah. I can't really imagine what the FBI would want with Mystic Falls." Matt commented, still upset after their conversation.

"Yeah, I really don't know." Alaric said, sipping his drink more thoughtful than ever.


	3. No rest for the wicked

**Chapter title:** No rest for the wicked  
**Characters:** Stefan Salvatore, Alaric Saltzman, Elena Gilbert, Caroline Forbes, Tyler Lockwood, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester  
**Words:** 2548  
**Notes:** Title is from SPN 3x16. Sorry if the chapters have grown so much in length. This was so much fun I couldn't resist :) 

"That's it?" a doubtful Stefan repeated.

Alaric just nodded as he slowly paced the Gilbert kitchen area, his arms crossed.

"Well…I guess it's no big deal anyway, isn't it?"

The professor didn't answer at first. It was only when he stopped moving and leant over the counter that he said: "I don't know that. From what I understood you and your brother handled the local authorities pretty well, but the FBI is no Sheriff Forbes, Stefan."

"I know that," the vampire stated "But the ancient vampires we're dealing with are serious and there is no way that some FBI humans could compare to…"

Stefan couldn't end his sentence as Elena and Jenna walked in, greeting their respective partners.

"Hi." Elena whispered sweetly to Stefan's ear as he surrounded her with his arms. If Jenna and Alaric hadn't been there he would have held her for hours the way he used to. And since they'd been forced to stay away from each other for so long, he felt they had to make up for all the time they'd lost.

But Elena slipped out of his embrace and took his hand in hers while turning to smile at Jenna.

"We're leaving now," her aunt said, grabbing her purse from the table and heading for the door with Alaric at her side "I'll see you later. Bye, Stefan, see you."

"Bye, Jenna. Alaric." Stefan greeted and exchanged meaningful looks with Alaric before he turned the corner to the hall.

Stefan brought his attention on Elena's beautiful face, that was now filled with doubt.

"What was that?" she asked.

"What?"

"That look Alaric gave you. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah! Sure," Stefan smiled widely and ran a finger through Elena's hair, pushing one lock aside. "You don't need to worry. Everything's fine now."

"Stefan," Elena piped up "Only because Elijah said I mustn't get in trouble anymore that doesn't mean I can't get to know what's going on…"

Stefan gave her another tender look. "It's nothing, really, it's only two FBI agents are asking questions in town about Mason and the 'animal attacks' of the past few months…But it's nothing you need to worry about, really. We've got that covered."

"_We_?" Elena didn't look convinced. Her raised eyebrow showed she highly doubted that Damon could have helped Stefan cover the animal attacks, since he was most likely to _cause them_.

"Well, I'd say we try to keep Damon from killing them. You both know that's not the right way." She told Stefan.

"Of course," he assured "We'll just compel them and made them believe that it was really only animals and that Mason has gone for an unplanned holiday in Europe."

"Europe! I'd love to go," Elena smiled all dreamy.

"Who says we can't?" Stefan chuckled. He pulled her closer and kissed her.

"Oh, thanks, Car."

Tyler looked up from the transparent wolfsbane envelope that Caroline had just given him and smiled warmly at the girl. She just smiled back and shrugged, but didn't manage to hide how happy she was of making herself useful.

"I figured you could use more of that, though it's not what I would call your favourite kind of stuff." she giggled. Tyler felt that the tense that was between them since his first transformation had not disappeared yet. He didn't know exactly what it was, but somehow he felt drawn towards Caroline now. Every smile and look of hers made him feel confused – exactly like a drug you want moreof.

"You're gonna have to show me where to find it, tho." Tyler said, half smiling, and Caroline nodded. "Can't keep bothering you about this forever."

"It's no bother, but yes, you're right. Next time we'll go together." She assured. Silence fell in the room, and Tyler started to think that Caroline perceived that sort of electricity too, or she wouldn't be so edgy as she looked like.

"Anyway, I should really go now," she exclaimed all of a sudden. "My mum's waiting for me for a very boring family reunion from which, sadly, I wasn't able to call myself out."

"No worries." Tyler shrugged. He let go of the envelope and left it on the kitchen table to show Caroline her way out. He opened the front door for her and stared at her face in way that probably made her uncomfortable – but a part of him _didn't care_. "I'll see you, Caroline. Thanks again."

Her smile was the last thing Tyler saw before closing the door on her. He was heading back for the kitchen when the doorbell rang again.

Tyler frowned as he turned round for the door once again and found himself standing in front of two strangers. The two guys were probably in their mid-twenties: the one on the left was shorter and had short hair, while the one on the left had it longer and modelled with gel. Both were dressed in a tidy black uniform.

"Hello, is Mrs. Lockwood inside?"

"Who's looking for her?" Tyler asked, with one of his usual most unwelcoming expression on his face.

The men rolled down their FBI IDs. "Agents Angus and Fudge, FBI."

Tyler gulped and slowly nodded as he was already fearing the worst for his uncle. 'Cause what else would the FBI be there for? That couldn't be about him at all, could it?

"May we come in for a few questions?" the taller of the agents asked him as he gave them no further sign of welcome.

"She's not home."

"Are you Tyler, Mrs. Lockwood's son?" the agent insisted. It looked like he had been doing his homework.

When Tyler nodded, the shorter guy said: "You'll be just fine then. We'd like to ask you about your uncle."

"We know nothing," Tyler stated quickly, his heartbeat speeding up for some unknown reason. Why? Why was he acting all weird all of a sudden? He realised he was putting himself in a very difficult position by looking so anxious to the agents, who now appeared doubtful themselves, and he didn't even know why.

"…Nothing that you don't know of, I mean. Nothing new." He corrected himself, advising his own self to shut the fuck up.

"We'd still like to ask you some questions."

Defeated, Tyler opened further the door and let them in as he tried to slow down his own breathing and figure out a way to not make them more suspicious than they already were. He hoped they were used to this kind of reaction by common people who suddenly saw these FBI people at their door.

The two agents took a look at the kitchen as they slowly paced towards it. Tyler followed them just in time to see the short-haired guy lie down his eyes on the kitchen table, where still stood the wolfsbane envelope.

Tyler jumped forward to catch it and smiled nervously as he shoved it down inside some jar.

"Do you have a thing for herbal tea, son?"

"No. It's just my mother's stuff." Tyler smiled a daring smile which reflected his desire to change the subject. Silence arose, until Tyler burst out with a "Please, sit.", at which the agents exchanged looks and then sat down.

"Well, uhm…" the taller one began "As from our investigation your uncle has last been seen nineteen years ago at the party that your family organized in your own mansion. Is that correct?"

Tyler nodded.

"Had he acted weird, ever talked about leaving or shown any signs of unsatisfaction…?"

Tyler snorted - and of course wasn't able to hide it – as he tried to think of anything not weird regarding his uncle in the past weeks, what with the werewolf curse and the moonstone and all. He quickly answered: "No, not at all. He's always been the kind of guy who didn't stay in a single place much long, always leaving, always on the move, but this time it looked like he had come back to stay and he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon."

"We know that Mr. Mason's girlfriend has come to your house looking for him some days ago." Agent Angus (which could as well be Fudge for what Tyler remembered of their introduction) pointed out.

"Yeah, but he had never told us anything about her anyway. I mean, I don't think he started missing her all of a sudden and just left."

"So what do you think, Tyler?" the other one asked him as he looked at him straight in the eyes. His glare was so intense that he might as well have been trying to exorcise him.

"I…I really don't know." The young Lockwood answered with a sad tone in his voice "I really liked him being around, I have no idea why he should leave."

"So you think he left against his will? Do you think he _left_?"

"Yeah, of course he left… "

"Did your uncle have any enemies around here?" the tone of the agent changed. Tyler realised that they weren't asking questions anymore. They had their own theory and they were trying to make Tyler say what they thought by manipulating him with an incessant flow of questions.

"Not that I know of." He said resolutely, not willing to let them do what they wanted of him.

"So you think nothing has happened to him." The shorter guy stated, looking as though he was teasing him.

"Yes, I do, I _think _so, and that's all I'll ever say about it!" Tyler burst in exasperation.

Actually, the thought of his uncle being dead scared the hell out of him. He hadn't talked to no one about it, he hadn't even talked about it to himself, for the thought itself was too terrible to accept. Tyler would never thought he'd grow so attached to his uncle, but losing both a father and a uncle (who had been more of a father to him than the Mayor) in a very short lapse of time would be too much for anyone, let alone Tyler Lockwood.

The agents exchanged again looks that Tyler could not decipher.

"Moving on, as I understand it's hard for you to talk about your uncle…" the short-haired guy said "Can you tell us anything about the animal attacks that recently occurred in the woods surrounding Mystic Falls?"

"What about them?" Tyler replied all cheeky. The two were getting on his nerves, asking too many questions.

"Any details about them that may have seemed strange to you. Do you know any of the victims? What do you think has happened?" the other agent insisted, he himself peeved – actually, Tyler thought, he looked like a guy who would start a fistfight in no time if he felt like it.

"I used to know this girl who was first attacked, her name was Vicki Donovan, she was a close friend of mine's sister…" Tyler explained "But then no, I don't know much about them, I have no idea about what kind of animal it was."

And the moment he said that, it struck him.

_Animal_. He'd saw what werewolves could do. He'd saw what vampires could do. But it had never occurred to him, since he had started discovering this brand new world, that these creatures could be anyhow related to the animal attacks which had involved Vicky and those other people. He suddenly realised the threat to which the population of Mystic Falls was exposed to every day, and felt that being part of that world now made him almost responsible for the attacks. He tried to calculate as quickly as possible whether the first days of Caroline as a vampire and the day of the last animal attack could match. But he wasn't going to get the answer now, as the two agents were waiting for him and hadn't lost track of his astonished facial expressions.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course."

"So are you sure it was an animal?"

"That's what the local cops always said. You should talk to them about this, not to me."

"Of course. But what is your opinion as a citizen? Do you feel like…there's something more behind it?"

Agent Gel guy was now obviously insisting too much. Tyler gave him a black look and, surprisingly, his colleague did the same.

"I trust the police and the sheriff. I know we're in good hands and that's all I'm going to say about it." Tyler still answered.

The short-haired man nodded and stood up.

"Well, thanks for your time, Mr. Lockwood…We might feel free to come and bother you again, if necessary."

Tyler nodded patronizingly as if he didn't bother though it was obvious that he did. Finally the second agent stood up too and he showed them their way out. He didn't feel free to breathe properly until he could lock the door behind their backs.

The conversation that had just taken place brought Tyler to a brand new level of worry. He had to call to Caroline's, no matter what kind of family reunion was going on at her place. He had to know whether she was involved and how and warn her about the two agents. He waited for the cops to drive off, then grabbed his car keys and left.

"So?" Sam went as soon as they left the house, in a way that was pretty self-explanatory and actually meant "I-told-you-there-was-something-going-on".

"So we're right into this shit." Dean replied, pretending he hadn't noticed his brother's tone.

"Do you think he's one of them?"

"One of them what? I haven't seen any vampires so far, I've only seen wolfsbane, and wolfsbane means…"

"Werewolves, I know. But what would a werewolf do with something that's basically venom to him?"

"Dunno. He looked pretty confused. If he was a vampire he would have put some better defence. Maybe attack. So maybe he's just human…"

"But he's definitely hiding something. Body language never lies." Sam stated resolutely "And the wolfsbane on the table. You think he always leaves that stuff around? Her mother wouldn't imagine what it really is, unless she's involved."

The look Dean gave him showed that he was going a bit too far.

"I don't know about the mother – but that blondie that went out the door just before us might be. Maybe she brought him the wolfsbane, that's why…"

"…it was on the table. He hadn't enough time to hide it." Sam concluded with a satisfied smile. Being in tune with Dean was part of the plan to re-establish the good ol' trusted relationship with him.

"So you think this is not about vampires at all?" Sam asked as they got in the car.

"No, I do think it's about vampires. The real shit is, I think it's about werewolves too."

"Only time will tell."

"Yeah, time and this Tyler guy," Dean said as he closed the car door "We'll keep an eye on him and see if he leads us to the blondie's place."

He started the engine before adding: "Which I wouldn't mind, actually. Unless we have to kill her, she alone might make this gig a bit easier to go through. If you know what I mean."

Dean smiled a cheeky smile at Sam, who shook his head and turned away with half a smile on his lips.

_So that's it: this is where a few days of writing has brought me. Now, if there's anyone out there who has been reading this and may have something to say about it, so as to make me decide whether to continue this or not, speak now or never. Yours, eleblack_


	4. You can't handle the truth

**Chapter title:** You can't handle the truth  
**Characters:** Damon Salvatore, Matt Donovan, Tyler Lockwood, Caroline Forbes, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester  
**Words:** 2325  
**Notes:** Title is from SPN 6x06.

His fingers drumming impatiently on the edge of the billiard table and a drink in his other hand, Damon felt extremely and incredibly bored.

With a hundred years behind and the whole eternity ahead, boredom was most likely to slowly kill any vampire than actually bore him, but Damon Salvatore was the motherfucker kicking ass kind of vampire and boredom didn't annoy him more than a light itch on the back of his neck.

But the itch was becoming itchier and itchier lately.

On the other side of the table, Stefan pocketed the remaining ball and then predictably raised his eyes to give his brother a cunning smile.

Damon forced his facial muscles to contract and smiled annoyingly in return for a nanosecond before getting back immediately to his seriously bored expression.

"C'mon, Damon, you can get a return match anytime you want." Stefan teased him as he enjoyed Elena's smile at his victory. She winked at her knight in shining armour.

"You can keep it." Damon grunted as he emptied his glass, and one second later he couldn't believe his glass was empty _again _and sighed emphatically.

"What's a vampire gotta do to have fun round here?" he burst out, willingly obtaining a lot of people's attention, and then walking up to the counter with everyone's eyes still on him.

Stefan and Elena exchanged looks.

"Maybe we should tell him about those agents." Stefan said out of a very rare black humour.

Elena gave him a scathing look.

Damon clambered on one of the bar's stool as if he was drunk. He banged the counter surface with his hand repeatedly until someone – the bartender – noticed him and came to his presence, ready to serve him.

"Yes?" Matt said, visibly annoyed but still polite – he was used to Damon's bad manners after all.

"One more of this. Make it two. Make it _three_." Damon ordered, looking as if boredom was tiring him more and more, second after second, and he should gather all his energies to fight it.

Matt slightly smiled as he poured the whiskey down a glass.

"Let's make it one for now, then you can have as many as you want…as long as I'm not the one having to carry you out of this place when you're done." The bartender said in an attempt to lighten the guy's black mood.

"How gallant of you!" Damon burst out, pretending to be sincerely impressed, but his smile easily turned down to a grimace as he waved at behind his back "But I'm all covered for today."

Matt raised his eyes to some spot in the bar where Stefan and Elena were talking to each other. He was still smiling when he served Damon his drink.

Damon lifted the glass as to toast and emptied it. He pushed it back towards Matt and said: "Now make me another one." His bastardo smile left no doubt in Matt that Damon had done so because his pride had been hurt.

Matt just shook his head and grabbed again the bottle of whiskey from under the counter.

"Sooooo," Damon said, visibly happier now that he'd made things clear to Matt "Why is it that you still hang around here when you're obviously tired of pouring drinks to people?"

"Dude, I work in here," Matt only answered as he shrugged.

"I know, but… what about your chick?" the thought of Caroline had suddenly popped into his mind; he hadn't seen the girl for long – too long, actually, considering that the girl liked to mess things up with astonishing frequency. Damon thought she had to be up to something as they talked. As he emerged from his thoughts he noticed that Matt's face had darkened.

"What?...Wait, she done with you?" Damon exclaimed and couldn't avoid smiling.

"We... took a break..." Matt answered defensively. There was no grace in his gesture as he put Damon's drink on the counter. He actually acted like walking away from him – but Damon was always faster.

"Right. And you thought you'd better focus on making people better drinks," Damon went "Which, actually, is not a bad idea since they suck – but hey, mate, I can't believe I have to tell you this: girls like to be raced off by guys. They live for that. They feed on that. "

Damon took a sip of whiskey and blinked at a baffled Matt, whose facial expression was precisely of the 'I can't believe I'm actually taking sentimental advices from Damon Salvatore' kind. The fact that Damon had had history with Caroline didn't help.

Silence followed Damon's statement, but the vampire knew he had struck Matt since he didn't look like he was going anywhere anymore.

"Looks like she's busy being raced by someone else now," Matt finally revealed, messing with dry glasses and plates as he spoke.

Damon giggled. He was getting involved.

"Looks like you're gonna have to run faster." He said simply. He was dying to ask who Matt's rival was, but just the thought of actually caring made him worry about his mental health. Was he becoming like those old TV-addicted ladies who spent their days watching soap operas?

Matt lifted his head to look at him – he had probably not considered the situation from that point of view. The jerk, Damon thought, had only considered to stop running for it. Which would have been fine for him if he hadn't suddenly decided that Mystic Falls' sentimental affairs would keep boredom away for a while. As long as it lasted.

"I think you should take the day off and go see her. Now." Damon said all serious – he sounded drunkish, actually, but that only made Matt more convinced of what he was about to do. Matt was not a real drinker but, from his experience, that _In vino veritas _crap was not really just crap.

He got rid of the towel he usually carried on his shoulder and half smiled at Damon with a murmured "Thanks", then walked away.

Damon grinned in his glass, deciding those two whiskies would be enough for now, and then jumped off the stool.

In a few steps he'd reached the billiard table, where Stefan and Elena stood looking at him, and grabbed his leather jacket.

"Off to watch soap operas. See ya."

* * *

Dean and Sam both couldn't believe it when Tyler Lockwood stepped out of his house and into his Land Rover very quickly, started it and drove off. They were used to watch their suspects for days and being offered a track so soon and so easily felt just too good to be true.

Dean felt shivers down his spine as he saw the satisfied and almost murderous look on Sam's face. The sooner they'd get rid of those blood-sucking heart-ripping motherfuckers and go back to finding out what had happened to Sam, the better.

They had no troubles following Tyler's car in the lazy traffic of the early evening. The Impala slid amongst the other cars as quietly as the sun made its way through the clouds and approached the distant mountains behind which it was about to set.

The young Lockwood led them to a suburban area, where he parked his car in front of the typical white-fence American house. Just as he crossed the road, Dean parked a few cars far from his and stopped the engine. A few minutes of silence followed, soon interrupted by an impatient Sam who suggested that they go closer to the house if they really wanted to find out anything.

Dean sighed and got off, heading for the trunk to gather all the stuff they would need to face whatever kind of creature would cross their path.

"Silver bullets?" Sam asked, appearing next to him from somewhere in the dark.

"Check."

"Wooden stakes?"

"Check."

"Dead man's blood?"

"Check." Dean said and closed down the trunk.

* * *

Tyler knocked on Caroline's door with the heart in his throat. He had not even thought of how he would explain his presence at her door or how he could dare to suggest that she was related to those killings – in case she wasn't, she wasn't going to like Tyler suspecting of her so easily. He also told himself that he had really chosen the worst moment for that as he remember that Caroline was currently busy with some kind of family reunion because that also meant that Sheriff Forbes was home too and keeping that stuff unknown to her would have required an extra effort which Tyler was not sure he and Caroline would be able to m-

"Tyler. Hi."

Tyler lifted his head to meet the eyes of a confused Caroline who had finally answered the door. As Tyler could see after checking her for a couple of seconds, the only thing she was probably busy with was painting her nails.

"Sorry to bother you, Car…ehm… Can I come in? Is that a problem? Are your relatives still around?"

"Oh… no, no, don't worry, it's fine, they're all gone." Caroline answered, though it didn't really seem to be fine. With a smile which looked more like a grimace, Caroline stepped away from the doorway to let Tyler in. He came in very cautiously, as if he was unwelcome in that house, and he had never cared so much about that stuff.

"Are you OK?" she asked him, visibly worried.

"Yeah. No. I…gotta talk to you."

"Okay, then…uhm…let's have a seat." Caroline proposed with a forced smile and stretched an arm to point at the sitting room. Tyler looked very uncomfortable to her and followed her without a word.

It took a moment to the two to sit down. Caroline found herself wondering whether she, as the host, should take a seat first and show Tyler his own or wait for him to sit down first as he was the guest.

For his part, Tyler's unease grew as he didn't know which distance from Caroline's spot he should take. Would it seem inappropriate to occupy the closest spot? Would it seem unusual to occupy the furthest since they had to _talk_?

Both of them just abandoned themselves on the sofa as they realised that their thoughts were growing sick. What was wrong with them?

"So, tell me." Caroline said, speaking pleasantly "What's the matter?"

"Two FBI agents showed at my door right after you left," Tyler said point-blank "They asked questions."

"FBI agents?" Caroline repeated, this time genuinely surprised "I think I saw them on my way out but I couldn't imagine they were from the FBI…"

"They asked me about Mason. I obviously said I knew nothing and that was it, though I think they already had their own theory 'cause they tried to make me say what they wanted me to say." Tyler explained in a flow of words.

"Like what?"

"Like he's dead. They believe he had enemies and they asked me who I think it could be – but I know _nothing_, for fuck's sake." He lifted his eyes to the ceiling "Anyway, they also said something about those animal attacks of the past few months."

Caroline gulped and Tyler saw that.

"…And?" she whispered.

"And I didn't know what to say either. I was nowhere near involved in all of this when they took place, I still have no idea what the hell it was and…" Tyler caught breath and looked straight in Caroline's eyes.

Her lips flattened as she quietly understood his point.

"And so I've come to ask you." Tyler finished.

Caroline sustained his look for a while, then turned away. "What do you wanna know?"

"If you know anything."

"If I know, right?" Caroline repeated mildly, looking inconsolably at her feet "You've not come to stand accusations."

"No, of course not," Tyler stated immediately "It's just…I've started asking questions to myself too. And I can't help but thinking that it was…"

"One of _us_. " Caroline's hurt look was now on Tyler again "It could be _me _as well, right?"

"Oh, please, stop it," Tyler urged "I'm not here to blame, I'm here to know. If it was you, just tell me, don't think I'd ever turn away from you because of anything you ever did. I could never, never do that."

The intensity of his voice had its effect on Caroline, whose face soon didn't carry the traces of her hurt pride anymore and contracted into a sad smirk instead.

"Yes, it was them. It was _us_." She whined "It was us all the time. I… it happened soon after I was turned. I was thirsty… they tried to keep me away, but…"

Caroline's sobs grew heavier and Tyler just got closer to her this time, didn't waste time thinking over it.

"It was over before I knew it. Oh, Tyler…" she strived so hard for words that she seemed to have lost her voice.

"Shhh," he went on, patting her on the shoulder "Take it easy, Car. You can do this. Take a deep breath and tell me more about it."

But the sound of broken glass behind them took their breath away instead. They both stood up and turned. The two FBI agents had broken one of the kitchen's lower windows and were now facing them, one pointing a gun at them, the other one carrying a wooden stake in his right hand.

"Yeah, why don't you tell us more about it."

_And that's it for now! Sorry for the waiting, and thanks for all the favs and alerts you put on this fic! I'd love to hear what you think 3_


	5. Humans shouldn't play with dead things

**Title **Humans shouldn't play with dead things

**Characters **Damon Salvatore, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Tyler Lockwood, Caroline Forbes

**Words **1340

**Beta reader **my dear Hilleri. Thanks so much.

**Note **Title is from Supernatural's 4x12 "Children shouldn't play with dead things". I BEG FOR YOUR MERCY :) I'm so sorry for posting so late, I promise that won't happen again (not anytime soon anyway). This chapter's not so long but I already have the following ones almost ready. Enjoy! And thanks for all your reads & reviews!

"What the hell…" Tyler exclaimed, scowling at them.

"Sit down." Sam ordered. He took a few steps towards Tyler as he pulled his own gun out of his pocket and pointed it at him. "_Sit down._"

Tyler and Caroline's astonishment was visible and none of them moved. That didn't feel like normal FBI procedure to them.

"Who gave you the right to break into my house?" a frowned Caroline protested.

"We're FBI, Miss. Now sit down." Dean got rid of her as he stepped forward and looked around the place to check that nobody had noticed anything.

"No!" she insisted "You can't just come in like that and point a gun at us- WE DID NOTHING!".

"It's us who ask the questions here!" Sam raised his voice "You just talk when you're told to. You've got so much to answer for."

"And I'll tell you more," Dean added, a merciless look on his face "One wrong move and we'll have to get tough with ya."

He showed them the small dead man's blood phial and waited for any reaction from them. But they just stared at it as if they didn't even know what it was.

"One drop of this and you can say farewell to your sorry little asses."

Caroline fixed her gaze on the little glass bottle. That did look like blood to her but she didn't feel her insides burn or felt drawn towards it. Her instinct told her instead to get as far away from it as possible. It felt too wrong to be even sharing the same room of that liquid.

She felt Tyler's confused look on her face. Her friend had no more clue of what was going on than she did.

"You think blood scares me?" a laughter burst out of Tyler's lips.

Dean looked at Sam. If that was a vampire, it was a very stupid one.

"Oh, this one? It should, it really should." Sam answered, a strange light in his eyes "But I bet this one doesn't, does it?"

Without any notice, he cut his own wrist with the blunt wooden stake and then waved his bleeding arm at a couple of feet from Tyler's face.

Tyler's eyes widened in disgust, but then he slowly began to understand what the two men were implying there. They had it all wrong. Well, not all, but they definitely hadn't guessed the right kind of freak he was. But Tyler understood the gravity of the situation only when he turned to look at Caroline, who now breathed heavily and grimaced at Sam.

Dean hurried forward and pushed Sam aside as they both stared at Caroline's eyes turn black.

The bell rang.

Matt stood in front of the door, his hands trapped in his jeans pockets to prevent them from nervously pulling the zip of his leather jacket up and down. The cold chill of the night surely didn't make him less eager to be let in than he already was. He felt it had been too impulsive of him to come and see Caroline without preparing a speech first. He felt stupid for listening to Damon Salvatore's uncaring words and having obeyed him like a good puppy. Let's face it, he had never really got over the fact Damon having been together with Caroline. Matt thought that Damon had some kind of life lesson to teach him about girls that he hadn't learned yet and that he could use with Caroline. And that was probably it.

But no, it probably wasn't, Matt thought as he saw the wrong kind of familiar face pop up from behind the front door. It took him a few seconds to realise if and when he had already seen the guy.

"Oh, hi…er…Matt, right?"

"Yeah…uhm…sorry, who are you again?" Matt asked, trying to look more apologetic than actually suspicious as he was. Though he couldn't remember well, he definitely felt that it was wrong for the guy to be opening Caroline's front door.

"Agent Angus…oh, well, Dean, I'm…Dean, I…" Dean muttered, a fixed easy-going smile never leaving his face "I'm Caroline's cousin."

"Oh," Matt said, this time sincerely baffled.

"Yeah," Dean nodded condescendingly.

"You didn't say you had relatives in town. I thought it was just… business." Matt recalled smiling, but the look on his face showed entirely how confused he was.

"Well, business _and_ pleasure," Dean chuckled uneasily, then cleared his throat and added "Uhm…Can I help you with anything?"

"Yeah, I'm… I'm looking for Caroline, actually. She's inside, isn't she?"

"Oooh, well…" Dean turned to look inside with an insecure smile "I think… I think she's in the shower."

Matt nodded slowly at him and said: "Well, is there any way I can talk to her? It will only take a minute."

"Awww, I don't know, man," Dean looked mortified "She's prepping herself cause we're all going out for dinner . You know, there's actually a family reunion going on right now, so…"

Matt surrendered to that last apologetic smile and shrugged his shoulders.

"But I'll tell her you stopped by." Dean assured all friendly, almost looking relieved now that Matt had finally understood that that wasn't his place to be.

"Okay. Thanks. Uhm…" Matt's face turned into a grimace for a second, before putting up a smile and adding "I'll see you around, I guess."

"Sure. Nice meeting ya again." The smile on the FBI Agent's face had already disappeared by the time he closed the door on Matt.

"Jesus, girl, you should really tell your boyfriends to come at better moments," Dean sighed heavily once he could step into the sitting room again "And possibly one at a time."

Caroline didn't answer nor looked at him. She was all curled up in a corner of the room, breathing heavily against her knees, eyes closed in an attempt to calm down.

"Did the kids behave while I was away?" Dean asked Sam ironically. The younger brother had made himself comfortable by sitting on a couch while keeping his gun pointed at Tyler.

Though the brothers had panicked when they had heard the doorbell ring, it hadn't taken them long to realise that there was no way that one of them could handle both the boy and the girl while the other one took care of the door. Dean, who still seemed to know better than Sam about how feelings worked, had told his brother that pointing his gun at Tyler would keep both of them calm and quiet.

As he now looked at her shivering figure again, Dean couldn't still forget the hurt look Caroline had given him as he spoke so.

"Yep, mama." Sam answered, totally at ease in his position. Dean wouldn't have been surprised to find him actually eating pop-corns as if he was at the movies. "So, where were we?"

"Just about to shoot one of us," Tyler grumbled.

"Right," Sam exclaimed, having Dean suddenly turn at him bewildered "Dealing with you one at a time's probably the best thing to do."

Dean's face fell as he grabbed the gun Sam was handing him. But he couldn't foresee that his brother would head for Caroline to stab her in the knee with a wooden stake.

"Hey!" Tyler shouted, covering only partially Caroline's squeal at that "Why don't you deal with someone who can fight you back, you bastard?"

"And would that be _you_?" Sam turned to face him, looking as if Tyler's rage only made him enjoy the moment more.

No answer was given, or if it was, it wasn't heard.

Everyone's attention was in fact caught by the sudden and deafening sound of shattering glass from above Sam's head. Pieces of another Forbes broken window fell like hailstones over his body as he could only cover his face and crouch down.

By the time everyone looked up again, Damon Salvatore was shaking the last glass fragments off his jacket and smiling a compassionate smile at Sam. He sighed.

"Hasn't no one ever told you not to play with dead things?"


	6. Fool me once

**Title: **Fool Me Once

**Characters:** Damon Salvatore, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Tyler Lockwood, Caroline Forbes

**Words: **1894

**Beta-reader: **Hilleri

**Notes:** Title is from TVD 1x14. I thank all of you for your readings and reviews :) Some of them were very useful to me to understand how to better write the rest of the story! And sorry if my English is not always good! I'm not a native speaker and I'm still studying to master it ;) So please be patient with me! And SORRY for updating so late!

* * *

Dean was the quickest. He stood up and pointed a gun at the stranger, for he definitely was one of the various supernatural freaks hanging round that God forbidden town. No human would have been able to jump that high and fast through a window without getting hurt at all.

"Oh, c'mon, this all you've got?" Damon commented on his gesture, waving him away as he made his way through the living room "You won't think that scares me."

While Sam behind him slowly stood up, he sat on the couch in front of where Dean stood. Dean had not yet lowered the gun, trained to not listen to what the creatures he was supposed to take down said to him.

Damon stared at him and seemed to consider the possibility that Dean was retarded, then he just shrugged and said: "But you can keep it if you want."

"Who are you?" Sam asked.

"I could ask you the same question," Damon said easily "Hey, Caroline, you got any liquor around here?"

"No, what he meant is _what _are you," Dean clarified aggressively.

"_Whatever you want me to be_," Damon recited. As a tv-shows addict wannabe, he'd done his homework.

"Let's see if this twists your tongue…" Dean said as he suddenly threw himself over Damon while pulling his own stake out of his pocket. But the other was so quick that he pushed Dean and his stake a dozen of feet away, right against the cupboard.

That same moment, Caroline moaned as she took the stake out of her knee and pulled herself on feet again. Tyler took it as a green light to abandon his position and reached for her to help her out.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Damon went all impressed. He stood up and started pacing the room slowly. "How many things you're gonna try on me before giving up? What you're gonna try next, uh? Verbane? Ooops. That was not so smart of me, was it? Well, take it as a little favour to reduce your disadvantage."

Damon turned to give his most generous look to Sam, who was stuck in the corner and apparently had no weapons left to use to defend himself. On the opposite side of the room, Dean strived to stand up while holding his bleeding head.

"But you look tired already, don't you? That's really too bad, 'cause I like playing with humans just as much as they like playing with me…Of course, the moment I decided to come here it didn't even cross my mind that I was going to provide myself with such an _entertainment_…"

"Damon." Caroline's sharp voice reached him from behind "Will you cut it short? Thanks."

"Oh, c'mon, Forbes, why does it always has to be you who gets all the fun?"

"You can have…all the fun you want…" a frustrated Caroline answered "Just go have it out of my house. And look, while you're at it, would you enjoy telling my mum what happened here as well, as soon as she comes back?"

"Well, I might as well complain to Liz about the poor choice of whiskies you have in here. I assumed her to be a woman of a certain taste…Wait." Damon turned, looking at Tyler as if he first saw him for the first time. "What is _he_ doing here?"

"Paying a visit, like all the rest of the boyfriends in town," a gloomy Sam murmured, earning himself a severe look from Caroline, who was now inches close to beating the crap out of him and didn't do it only because Tyler held her tight.

Damon smiled as he put two and two together. "You naughty little girl!" he teased her, and then turning utterly serious "Lockwood, you get her as far from here as you can. I'll handle these two."

"No! Damon," Caroline protested "Not in here, not- "

"Car, just leave it," Tyler shushed her "Let's go."

As he pushed Caroline forward towards the door and slid next to Sam, his and Sam's gazes crossed and shared profound anger. They both looked as if they were each predator of the other and had to let go of their prey against their own will; the one letting the other know that they would come back for him and make him pay for what he'd done.

Silence fell after the two of them had left the house. Damon waited till he heard Tyler's engine start and his car get away before he'd start talking again.

"Looks like it's only the three of us now. Anyone fancy a drink?"

"Look, you shiny-teethed long-winded freak," Dean's hoarse voice interrupted him "Just tell me what you are so I can decide how to kill you, because trust me, I will."

Damon chuckled as he realised the guy was talking serious. It seemed he had the guts – though he sadly wouldn't have it for long if he kept giving him that boring shit.

"So that's why you're here? To kill _me_? I'm terribly sorry, you must have misspelled the address."

"You and whatever supernatural shit's haunting this place."

"I'm telling ya, if you keep calling me a shit, there's a chance I might get offended." Damon felt it right to point out.

"Then tell us what we should be calling you," Sam intervened.

"Oh, please! I'm seriously, seriously disappointed with you," Damon whined "You definitely lack of power of observation!"

He jumped on the sofa and stared at the two humans from above, his arms stretched out "C'mon, just look at me: unmistakable handsomeness, irresistible old-school humour and plenty of time to waste with jackasses like you two…what could I possibly be?"

"A vampire," Sam whispered, finally enlightened in what was the confirmation to their researches. And having already found two vampires didn't mean there weren't any more bloodsuckers around.

"Correct, Watson!" Damon answered in a similar mocking whisper. Dean and Sam remained silent, one's gaze stuck on the other's face, and he couldn't tell whether they were really satisfied with that answer.

He jumped off.

"So now you know what I am. What kind of uneducated villains are you to not introduce yourself back?"

Dean's lips flattened in a plain smile. "What you wanna know?"

"Well, for a start, what are you doing in Mystic Falls and why on earth would you carry on a suicidal mission like this one," Damon smiled back.

Sam giggled behind him. "Why do you even care?"

"I don't," Damon said, turning halfway towards him "It's for the sake of the conversation."

"I say it's because you like to play with your food."

It was Damon who grinned this time and stood up. "You know, I'm starting to like you,"

The two men shared a deep and complex look which Dean could only contemplate from the outside; the doubleness and curiosity that their body language expressed was completely foreign to him.

"I'll tell you something, Dracula," his voice interrupted the invisible thread that connected Sam and the vampire only for a few seconds; his words made Damon turn and seemed to keep his interest alive "You're not looking at the big picture here. You're just a very little part of something much bigger than you, and we're aiming at a bigger fish, here, so stop acting like a friggin diva."

Damon's smile was gone. His gaze was threatening now.

"_I _am the biggest you're ever gonna get around here. So _maybe _you should stop looking and start running instead."

"You don't get it," Dean went on, visibly satisfied of having succeeded in mining the vampire's self-confidence "You're just a product of a huge market out there. You're just one of many. I'm not interested in you, whatever strong you may ever be. I'm interested in your maker."

Damon gave a bitter laugh.

"You may want to take a school trip at the old Church, then. She would love to have you as her guests – too bad my plan is not to buy her food but to leave her starving to death down there, otherwise I would bring you myself."

"She?"

"You're looking for Katherine Pierce, aren't you?" Damon went on, now sure that the crazy bitch had managed to bring to town some more troubles from her past.

"We know no Katherine Pierce," Sam stated "We're looking for, you know, the chief."

"The alpha vampire. The one that started it all," Dean explained, and then added sarcastically "Maybe you can give us directions to there too?"

Damon's face darkened and he became serious as the two brothers had never seen him be so far. "What you want with him?"

"He's got something of ours," Dean smiled, for the first time abandoning his position in the corner to step slowly forward "So, can you tell us where to find him or not?"

"Why should I send you there to die when I can kill you myself?"

"'Cause I'm willing to spare your life if you give us anything," Dean said with empty look "We won't be coming for you or any of your friends if you point us to your daddy- "

"Klaus is no daddy to any of us," Damon stated with sudden coldness.

"So that's his name? Klaus?" Sam repeated.

"Well, it is, if it's the most ancient vampire I know you're looking for. But nobody knows where he is – if we did we would probably be busy getting as far away from there as possible. I can't really get why you two retarded creatures would want to get near him considering that you've got zero chances of surviving."

"You don't tell me how to do my job." Dean had given up his slow pacing and was now in the middle of the devastated room.

"Why? Is that what you do?" Damon asked incredulous "Hunting vampires for a living? How many have you killed so far? One? You really must have had a boring teenage."

"Trust me, you don't wanna know," Sam answered as he reduced his distance from Damon too.

"Show me your little tricks, then!" an amused Damon exclaimed "Where's your hat and where's your rabbit?"

Dean and Sam exchanged looks. "He said he doesn't know. We don't need him anymore, do we?"

Sam shrugged and shook his head. Damon kept grinning a very sceptical grin.

The noise of an approaching engine and of tires screeching on the asphalt hit Damon like an epiphany and had him turn towards the front windows, through which he saw Sheriff Forbes' car being parked in front of the house.

He turned again to face Dean as he registered his movements to stab him in his chest and raised his hands to grab him by the neck and make it snap. Too bad there wouldn't be the time for a little snack.

The moment he felt the human's warm skin under his neck he couldn't breath. He lowered his eyes to look at the blunt point of the wooden stake with which Sam had stabbed him in the back.

Everything went darker. He saw no other movements around him anymore but heard from afar, as if in a dream, the door bang open and Liz's voice calling for anybody. He used all its remaining energy to extract the piece of wood from his body before collapsing on the floor of the empty living room.


	7. Vampire's trap

**Chapter title**: Vampire's trap

**Characters**: Caroline Forbes, Elena Gilbert, Stefan Salvatore, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester

**Notes**: Just a few words. I want to apologize to all of you for being MIA for a year. I have been (and keep being) very busy with university; I graduated and was therefore busy with my thesis, and then I just started university again (master degree) (I know, I'm a masochist). I also want to thank you for all the wonderful reviews I received from you during my absence. I loved your advices and comments and it is therefore thanks to you if I'm publishing this new chapter tonight. Your reviews made me realize that I owe you at least to try to continue writing this fanfiction. I can't promise you anything, can't give you dates or set any deadlines, I'll just try to do the best I can. In the meanwhile, enjoy your reading!

This chapter's title comes from SPN 1x22.

* * *

"Caroline!"

At the sound of Elena's voice over the noisy crowd, Caroline turned. Her lips curved in a quick smile: her friend didn't need to yell, she would have heard her even if she had whispered.

The brunette reached her blond friend and threw herself into her arms without any notice. Caroline was surprised and did nothing at first. Her friendship with Elena hadn't been so strong lately, but she'd been too busy dealing with Matt and Tyler's transformation to do something about it.

Now that Elena was holding her tight, she realised that it hadn't happened in a while.

"How are you?" Elena said worried as the two parted and she lowered her eyes and scanned Caroline's body for injuries still to be seen.

Caroline smiled a big smile. "Fine,"

"Fine? Aren't you scared? Where did you spend the night? You should have come over."

The blondie giggled again and said "What, and play gooseberry? But maybe you're right, we haven't had a sleepover in ages anyway!"

Only as she said that she noticed that Stefan was a couple of steps behind Elena and was smiling at her.

He went closer only as she smiled back. "Hope you're alright," he told her "I have to apologise for what happened yesterday. I knew about these guys but I underestimated them. I thought we could deal with them at any time we wanted."

"You know, Stefan, it's alright, really," Caroline said, shaking her head "Whoever they were, it was just humans. I was taken by surprise, otherwise they wouldn't be still alive."

She caught a glimpse of disapproval in Elena's eyes but tried not to care and focused on the fact that Stefan believed they should _solve the problem _as soon as possible.

"Yeah, apparently they surprised us all," Stefan said thoughtfully "Damon's still home licking his wounds."

"Yes, mum told me," Caroline said gravely. Her mother had told her how she'd find Damon Salvatore lying half-dead on the floor and how he had miraculously awoken after some minutes.

"Is she suspecting anything?" Stefan asked as he knew Damon had fainted after being hit with a stake.

"What, about the stake? No," Caroline denied "She thinks it's just a shame that those people had to hit him with such a _rudimental _weapon. Of course she knows what that is, but she trusts Damon too much to connect the two things."

Caroline suppressed the grimace that she always felt like doing every time her mother showed her great trust in Damon. Although it was probably because she looked like she trusted Damon more than her own daughter, Caroline still felt that her trust was misplaced and that it could get her killed one day or another.

"Good," Stefan commented, nodding thoughtfully. Elena smiled a half smile and squeezed Caroline's right shoulder.

"Of course they're looking _for them_," Caroline added after a moment "I tried myself all night long, but I couldn't trace anything."

"You keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything strange," Stefan recommended "Look for anything that may belong to them, we'll follow their trail."

"You don't see, Stefan, it's useless!" Caroline repeated and invited them to follow her out of the crowd to a quieter corner "I've tried to follow their smell but it feels like they never even entered this town! I can smell _nothing_!"

"Well, they probably know how to not _smell_," Elena commented with a grimace.

"Yeah, they know some tricks," Caroline agreed, still annoyed "Question is, how. And who are they and what they want."

"Apparently, " Stefan began with a sceptical smile "They're looking for Klaus."

"What?" Elena turned to face him "Why?"

"I don't know, they didn't say."

"But why attack Caroline then?"

"They went to Tyler's too," Caroline pointed out "What about him? Do they think he's a vampire? But why would they?"

"They think there might be something wrong with him too," Stefan explained, "The fact that they know about the stakes and the way they tricked all of us means that they're hunters – and they're good ones."

"So you think… you think they're basically after any non-humans in this town?" a gloomy Elena murmured.

He turned to her and said in a soft voice "It's only a matter of time before they show at someone else's door. And since we can't anticipate them or find them, we'll have to wait for them to find us – and be prepared when they do."

* * *

"Next move is ours, Dean," Sam insisted on telling his brother "They can't find us and we should use that to our own advantage."

"Yeah, like how, Sherlock? There's a whole army out there, and we've only found two vampires, let alone the werewolf who could have his own gang of friends too."

"We knew there were many of them, ok? This detail never stopped us from going for it."

"What about they can walk in the sun? Does that sound enough important a detail to you?" Dean grumbled from the bed.

Sam massaged his own temples and shook his head. "Well, there's not much we can do now without getting exposed. Actually, we've exposed ourselves too much already. There's no turning back. I say we make raids in town, and watch them and the people they interact with every day. If we're careful and move in daylight, we should be able to get back here without getting followed."

"But that will take us ages to do!" Dean protested childishly. He closed his eyes and leaned down on the blankets. "Bloody bloodsuckers with their damn daddy issues – why don't they just tell us where this Klaus guy is?"

Sam sighed and turned to face the table. He drew his laptop closer, opened it and googled 'Verbane'.

Silence fell in the room, a silence made of Dean's heavy breathing and of Sam's soft typing. Dean hated being in this position, he hated being worried when his brother wasn't at all. Being the oldest, Dean was supposed to be the most experienced and courageous as well, but it proved very hard to do lately as his brother didn't know the meaning of 'worry' anymore. By losing his soul, Sam seemed to have lost every kind of survival instinct.

"You think we killed that one?" Sam murmured out of the blue.

"Who? The John Travolta one?" Dean raised his head from the pillow "I really hope so, since he was this close from breaking my neck – I don't want to have to go through that again. And then, for God's sake, he wouldn't stop talking! Aren't they supposed to just bite?!"

Sam giggled. He was reading through a website about botany in the hope to find out where verbane was most likely to be found.

"You said there's a wood just out of town, didn't you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm going looking for verbane."

"What? In the woods? Are you insane?" Dean stood up "It's like inviting those freaks over for tea!"

"I'm all set, Dean!" Sam reminded him, lifting his shirt to show his knives, a wooden stake and the syringe of dead man's blood.

"Look, I'll come with ya. But I'm going for a shower first." Dean shushed him, and to Sam he sounded like a father who finally agrees to take his son somewhere fun so he will stop pestering him about it.

The brothers spent two difficult hours in the woods and hurried up while looking for the magic herb. As soon as they found a consistent bush in a small hollow they dived deep into it until they managed to pick up enough of it for the "whole army" – Dean feared it wouldn't be enough anyway.

The woods around them were so silent that their every step sounded like a battle cry. At least this way their senses were high and their hearing was no more disadvantaged if compared to a vampire's.

During that time they didn't even speak to themselves, the thick silence weighing on their shoulders like the cold fog of lies that from months had descended upon them.

And if Dean couldn't help but rant in his head for the big amount of obstacles that lay ahead between them and Sam's soul, Sam was feeling strangely at ease and found himself measuring the time that passed with extraordinary calmness. What had started as a quick last-minute mission was turning into an interesting series of events that made him lose his focus. This hunt/be-hunted thing was thrilling and so was the prospective of facing more vampires, while the prospective of getting his soul back looked boring to him in contrast. The old himself would have certainly not liked being the prey of the situation.

Getting his soul back now looked like something that could wait, a problem that they would solve only eventually. Or _maybe not_: it felt like it was more Dean's problem than his after all.

That night, back at the motel, Dean expressed his wish to try one more burger from the Mystic Grill, and Sam almost took it as an excuse to tell him that they should probably go back the following day.


End file.
